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Don’t worry–I don’t keep wild birds captive in my home. All I mean is that I just heard some good news:

Dear Authors,

Congratulations! If you are receiving this email it means one or more of your stories has made it onto the long list for the Raven Contest. . .

Pulp Literature is a high-quality literary journal with great art work, flash fiction, short stories, poetry, and novellas. Previously, I’ve been fortunate enough to place twice for their Magpie Award (for poetry)–first place in 2014, and second in 2015.

Discovering that I have a chance to add a RAVEN to my MAGPIES makes me think I might just have to look for a birdcage soon!

In any case, as poetry and short fiction are my current strengths, I’m thrilled to have at least made the longlist for both of these contests. By November 15th, I’ll know if there are any more fluttery creatures coming my way, but if you’d like to check out their contests too, go to

A good opening leads you into another world–the world of the story. Here are a few that got my attention from The Best American Short Stories 2014:

From David Gates‘ “A Hand Reached Down to Guide Me” :

The name Paul Thompson won’t mean any more to you than my name would, but if you’d been around the bluegrass scene in New York some thirty years ago, you would have heard the stories.

From Lauren Groff’s“At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners“:

Jude was born in a cracker-style house at the edge of a swamp that boiled with unnamed species of reptiles.

From Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s“The Judge’s Will“:

After his second heart attack, the judge knew that he could no longer put off informing his wife about the contents of his will.

From Benjamin Nugent’s“God“:

He called her God because she wrote a poem about how Caleb Newton ejaculated prematurely the night she slept with him, and because she shared the poem with her friends.

From Joyce Carol Oates’“Mastiff“:

Earlier, on the trail, they’d seen it.

From Stephen O’ Connor’s “Next to Nothing“:

The Soros Sisters’ eyes are the blue of lunar seas, their complexions cloud white, and their identical pageboys well-bottom black.

Whether it adds a bit of mystery, introduces readers to an interesting character, or takes us into a world unlike our own, a good opening grabs attention in a good way…and unlike Hollywood, it doesn’t need to be accomplished with a car crash or a chase scene.

Spotlight on Horror Writer J. H. Moncrieff

I met J.H. Moncrieff at the Surrey International Writers Conference in Surrey, B.C. Two things struck me about her almost immediately: her attitude about writing…and her attitude about life! She’s a writer and a fighter (more than you might even know—read on!), and she’s the focus of today’s spotlight interview:

Welcome to www.fighttowrite.com, J.H. You’re definitely a writer and a fighter. Did the environment you grew up in make you a tougher person? Does it influence your writing?

I don’t want to bash my childhood, so let’s just say I wasn’t exactly encouraged to succeed when I was growing up, and that made me more determined to do something with my life. I was always the kid that spoke up when I saw injustice of any kind, which probably made things rougher for me in a lot of ways, but at least I know I wasn’t a silent bystander. I helped get abusive teachers fired; I defended my friends when bulliestargeted them; and I definitely wasn’t quiet on the home front, either.

It’s not intentional, but my stories tend to take place in small communities and a lot of them feature dysfunctional families, so I’m sure my experiences have influenced what I write a great deal. I’m not writing about my own life or my own town, but some of the details and emotions are familiar.

You lived through some harsh conditions in your early years, but you also found yourself in a tough situation or two in your years as a journalist. Can you tell us about a memorable incident or two?

There are a few I’ll never forget. We used to have a serial arsonist in the city, but no one was doing much about him since he was targeting poor neighbourhoods. The families in the area would take turns staying awake all night so their houses didn’t burn down. None of the media had noticed the pattern, because fires are only reported when they’re above a certain dollar value, and these were derelict or abandoned houses in a lot of cases. Once I dug a bit deeper, I discovered the houses were booby-trapped for the firefighters. One man had broken his leg when he fell through a hole in a floor, so the fire department was reluctant to enter any of the houses. I had to convince my editor to run with the story, which ended up on the front page. In response, the police formed a task force and eventually caught the arsonist.

Other tough cases were mothers who had lost their children. One young mom was estranged from her abusive boyfriend, who came to her house when she was at work. He tied up the babysitter and stole his ex-girlfriend’s toddler. In an unbelievable act of cruelty, he left the baby in the back of a van during the night. The child froze to death. It was heartbreaking. I was also sent to interview a mother whose daughter had just died from anorexia. Sometimes all you can do is cry along with them.

You wrote so many nonfiction articles—what finally led you to fiction in general, and to horror fiction, more specifically?

Non-fiction was supposed to support me while I tried to get my novels published…I never expected it to take over my life as much as it has. My first scary story was published when I was in Grade Four, but I really got into writing horror when a high school English teacher I admired told me he hated what he called “Disney” endings. Easiest way to avoid them? Write horror.

Now, you have a reputation as a fighter—a muay thai kickboxer, nonetheless. What made you decide to take up that sport? Which would you say requires more discipline—fighting or writing?

I’d wanted to be boxer since I watched Rocky III as a kid, but unfortunately, there were no training opportunities in my small Northern community. I’d heard about kickboxing and thought it sounded like the coolest martial art ever, but by the time I moved to a place that had muay thai dojos, an abusive ex had broken my spine. I thought muay thai was out of the question, but my chiropractor just happened to be the official chiropractor for the best muay thai club in the city. He not only thought I could handle the training—he thought it would be great for my back, and he actively encouraged me to try it. I’m so glad I listened to him!

Both fighting and writing take a lot of discipline, but I’d have to say fighting takes more. When you’re training to fight, you’re hurting, you’re exhausted, you can barely move, but you can’t stop. Writers may face rejection, but they’re not getting punched in the face or having their legs kicked out from under them.

And if you had a single piece of advice to give beginning writers, what would that be?

Get a menial job that will pay the bills without draining your creativity. Submit your work as much as you can. Never undertake exhaustive rewrites for an agent unless there’s a publishing contract on the table. And never, ever give up.

You also have a tragic personal story that influenced you greatly. Can you share a bit of that with us, and let us know about the impact it had on you and your life decisions after that?

There have been a few, but I assume you’re talking about the ex who broke my back. When you’re a teenager, especially a teenage girl, you don’t always recognize psychopaths for what they are. Sometimes their obsessive behaviour seems romantic, or endearing: “Oh, how sweet…he doesn’t want me to go anywhere without him. He must need me.”

I’d broken up with this boy the night he tried to kill me. He saw me with another boy, a friend, and followed us in his mother’s car. Even though we had a bigger, newer vehicle, we couldn’t get away from him because the streets were icy. At first I thought my ex wanted us to stop so he could fight my male friend, but then he slammed his mom’s car into my friend’s truck. He hit us seven times before we were able to flag down the police. I’d known he was disturbed before that, but I didn’t have any idea how much.

That attack will affect me for the rest of my life. I have chronic migraines, as well as neck and shoulder pain, but they’re nowhere near as bad as they used to be before I took up muay thai. I hope I’m better able to recognize toxic people, but I’d never say I can’t be fooled. People like my ex are very good at playing a role that hides their true nature.

So that’s a bit of the past…can you let us know about the future? You have some works coming out this year—a short story and a novel, is that right?

My novella The Bear Who Wouldn’t Leavewas picked up by Samhain Horror and will be released this May. Pre-orders are already available on Amazon and Kobo. I’m really excited about it!

Current works in progress? Can you give us a few hints about what you’re working on at the moment?

I’m working on a new twist on the sea-monster myth, and a series of horror novels set in ancient Egypt.

As a final question, what is something I haven’t asked about that you would like to mention? Any final words or anecdotes for us?

Along with journalism, I’m an editor and publicist for hire. I work with a lot of authors, and recently celebrated a big success with one of my clients—that was pretty awesome! More information about the services I offer can be found on my website. I also blog about unsolved mysteries, the supernatural, and haunted travel on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Often, when you hear the word “CONFLICT” you might picture two people fighting–battling each other, duking it out, or fighting against a snowstorm or hurricane. What you might not think about is conflict that is created the way Jason M. Jonesdoes it in “A Day at the Races.” Take a look at this excerpt:

Your mother never talks about him, who he is or how he was when they dated. She never explains why she wouldn’t marry him, but you’re beginning to get inklings, and this is one of those moments. Your father thinks it’s fun: the speed, the danger. It gives him a rush. but she wouldn’t find this fun, and you don’t, either. To you, it’s tempting fate–foolhardy and dangerous. It defies all common sense, and you’re just happy when he pulls up to the racetrack’s entrance, you’re still in one piece.

There are a few techniques I like in this paragraph. The first is his use of RULE OF 3: “Your mother….Your father….To you….” We see three points of view about the same situation. This nonfiction piece focuses on the father and son relationship especially, though, so what’s interesting about the conflict here is that it’s not one person out to get another, or one person in the way of another; it’s two people viewing the same situation differently.

The speed and the danger are the thrill the father gets from racing motorcycles on weekends; the speed and the danger are what worries his son, who has nightmares and daymares of his father dying in one of those races. It’s character foil, yes, but it’s more than that. It is a difference in outlook that separates two family members, and it’s the son worried about the father, not the other way around. One person can’t just walk away from this relationship; the two are father and son. But that bond is the very thing creating the problem. It’s a very difficult conflict to resolve.

This true story (together with some words a son NEVER wants to overhear his father say, later on) is in the Fall 2013 edition of The Normal School. Check it out if you get a chance… and give some “indirect conflict” a shot in your own prose!

So far this year, I’ve scheduled two opportunities to present ideas about writing to others, and the first is coming up very soon. I’ll be in Coquitlam on February 20th presenting ideas to a group of teachers as part of their CTA (Coquitlam Teachers Association) district-wide professional development day, CREATING CULTURES OF LEADERSHIP.

A colleague, Greg Sutherland, and I will be presenting ideas about reading and writing strategies (he’ll handle the reading and I’ll handle the writing, but of course the two are greatly connected). In my portion of the offering, I’ll be discussing “dissections”–reading as a WRITER. The goal is to show teachers nearly 30 techniques I’ve gleaned from a single short story that can help their students (and themselves) become better writers–tools in the toolbox for their creative writing. Along the way, I’ll show them what to look out for instead of piling on the who, what, where, and when questions into handouts for their pupils.

From the CTA to the ACT in September…

On the third Tuesday of September this year, I’m privileged to be able to present ideas to the Golden Ears Writersat the ACT (Arts Centre and Theatre)in Maple Ridge, BC.

My focus? Before the break, I’ll be going over ideas about what poets thinkabout as they begin to transform an idea into a poem. I’m going to show them several of my award-winners and explain how each has a slightly different area of emphasis, allowing them to peek inside my mind for a while (scary, I know) to see just what goes into the creation of a poem.

After the break, I’ll be discussing short fiction techniques, including many that have allowed me to elevate the level of my short stories in just a few short years. Since a student of mine convinced me to start writing short fiction three years ago, I’ve won the Storyteller Award, have made the finals in Red Tuque’s “Tales of the Mysterious” contest (final thirteen still being judged at the moment, and all will be published in an anthology), have sold work to McGraw Hill (to be published as part of their iLit series) and have had work nominated by a literary journal, Pulp Literature, for the Journey Prize, the Pushcart Prize, and a National Magazine Award (results pending).

I owe much of that success to the very techniques I’ll be teaching about during these two sessions. It’s been a goal of mine for 2015 to get out and PRESENT some writing-related workshops (instead of merely attending plenty!), so this month, I’ll get to check another writing-related goal off the list.

“Victory Girl” Nominated by Pulp Literature

The editors at Pulp Literaturehave been incredibly kind to me this year…

My poem, “Big Red Schoolhouse,”was selected by past Poet Laureate George McWhirteras the winner of The Magpie Award, and was subsequently nominated by Pulp Literature’s editors for a National Magazine Award.

One of the editors, Sue Pieters, tracked me down at a writer’s conference and asked if she could send me a contract to publish “Victory Girl,”a short story that won The Storyteller Award at SIWC. Once published, the editors nominated it for a Pushcart Prize, a National Magazine Award, and now, The Journey Prize.

My utmost thanks to that journal, their amazing publication (they make my writing LOOK beautiful!), and the most supportive editors (Mel Anastasiou, Jennifer Landels, and Sue Pieters) any writer could hope to find.

The official news (along with the names of the other two nominees) is here, on Pulp Literature’s site:

I originally met Crystal Bourque at the SIWC Conference in October, 2014. She’s passionate about writing, and we’ve been staying in touch, sharing ideas about that very subject ever since. This month, she asked me to pen a guest blog for her about the subject of the value of poetry to fiction writers. Here’s the link:

A short story of mine is in the finals for Red Tuque’s “Canadian Tales of the Mysterious” contest. That means it’s one of thirteen stories chosen to be published in an anthology later this year. Right now, they’re choosing the placings, so I won’t say the title of my story just yet, to keep the judging blind. There’s a big difference in prize money, though:

1st: $500

2nd: $150

3rd: $100

4th-13th: $25

Hoping for a top three finish (top one, of course), but happy to see this story make its way into print, whatever the final result. I’m having a more successful writing year already with three short stories and a nonfiction article scheduled for print in three different publications already, so some of the sting of that rejection a few days ago is starting to leave me.

We’ll know the top three by the end of February, I believe, so here’s hoping…!

Last night, at the Vancouver Public Library, I was fortunate (along with what appeared to be about 300+ other people!) to be able to take in an evening of readings by three gifted poets…

The night began with Kayla Czaga, and her first published book of poetry, For Your Safety Please Hold On. Her collection has a conversational tone to it. As I sat listening to poems about her drunk uncle or her poker-playing father, I was reminded of a family backyard barbecue or reunion. We hear the voices of these significant others in her life, and we get to know them through her snapshot portraits.

As a teacher who often has students with English as an additional language, I loved hearing about the landlady in her poem “That Great Burgundy-Upholstered Beacon of Dependability,” who is spending her day “teaching rich Korean kids the difference between a nightstand and a one-night stand.” I laughed and laughed, because I have lived moments like this, one in particular, where a student, quite accidentally, used the word “relationSHITS.” The ending to this poem is clever and touching, though, and it was a beautiful finale to her reading.

Up next was Arleen Paré, whose book Lake of Two Mountains, won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry. As I listened to her selections, I noticed how it is not simply a collection of poems that use water symbolically but rather a portrait or memoir of a lake that truly exists between Ottawa and Montreal, a lake where she spent many summers with friends and family. She writes about the lake as if it were part of the family, too, so it was an interesting followup to Czaga’s personal poems.

Her poetry is music, filled with rhythms that she says come quite naturally to her. Even as she read, she made changes to some poems, which at first struck me as an odd choice, but later made sense. She’s swept up in the moment, in the words, improvising as she goes. The most shocking was her reading of “Summer Ends,” where she cut the final four lines in what is an eleven-line poem. It was like she set up the mood, and, satisfied with how it sounded, left it there for people to take in. A talent on paper and in person.

The highlight of the night for me was hearing Patrick Laneread some of the work from his latest, Washita. This is a collection of entirely new work that he has written over the past four years, but there’s a bit of the old Lane here too. “Off Valparaiso” includes “flensing knives huge as paddles, the blocks straining, at times a whale still breathing, its skin lifed away in strips, the sighs, huge and unimaginable.” It took me back to the first Patrick Lane poem I ever read, “Because I Never Learned.” That poem, written in the 60s, included an image of someone stepping on the head and crushing the skull of a kitten that’s been hit by a passing car. It’s a move that is both compassionate and ugly at the same time, and it’s that poem that led me to write “Big Red Schoolhouse,” which includes a different real-life event that evokes the same type of reaction. It’s a poem I dedicated to Patrick and his brother Red.

“Because I Never Learned” was a poem that shocked me (You can write poetry like THAT???) back in 1987. It’s what got me into reading and writing poetry. I was fortunate to have Lane as my prof in the University of Saskatchewanthat year, and his enthusiasm for Canlit hooked me. In 2014, my Lane-like poem won a poetry contest, Pulp Literature’s Magpie Award, and was published in that journal’s autumn issue. At the reading last night, not only was I able to get an autograph from Patrick Lane on an edition of his collected life work, but I was also able to GIVE him a copy of the journal with my poem written for him in it. It was the completion of a circle for me, a moment as satisfying as those rare times when words flow effortlessly.

THE WEIRD FACTOR:

Czaga mentioned that she had never been taught by Patrick Lane, but that she had a connection to him. She was being taught by his wife, Lorna Crozier, who created a “bad haiku” contest, one judged by Patrick Lane. Czaga won and received her prize: a poetry-in-transit poster of Lane’s poem “Bamboo Seeds.” It’s always found a space on her wall, throughout the moves she’s made, and it’s also found in another space too…the wall of a certain Coquitlam teacher’s classroom…ahem, ahem.

Okay, 2015 is up and running and I’ve been away from blogging while concentrating on writing new works. But today in the mail–one of the strangest rejections I’ve ever gotten. Without outing the small press it came from (because I still want to submit work to them), here’s an excerpt of the letter:

Thank you for considering XXXXXXXX for your young adult fiction, XXXXXXXX.

Presently we must pass on the opportunity to pursue your work as XXXXXXXXX’s publishing commitments have been made through 2016….unfortunately, submitting your query relatively late in the submission period for fiction did have an impact on this decision…

That said, we encourage you to consider us next year or for future writing projects….

Now let me see if I’m reading this correctly. I submitted before the end of your reading period that is listed on your website, but because I submitted near the end of that reading period, I’m SOL? Hold on. It got to you in the mail about a week before the end of your reading period, and I’m too late to be considered???

Arghhh… not the start I wanted to 2015, but I have to say, I’ve never received a form letter rejection quite like this one ever before. I met someone’s guidelines and was rejected for uh, following their guidelines?

Disappointing, but entertaining at the same time…and here’s hoping your 2015 is off to a better start than mine!

NANOWRIMO: FINAL WEEK!

So it’s the final week of Nanowrimo, and you find you’re stuck. I mean STUCK…like…

STUCK like…

but really, more like…

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Try a few of the following on for size…

Did you leave any gaps? Any chapters unfinished? Go back and flesh them out!

The beginning of a book can include more description, especially since the action will pick up the pace later. Can you add to the imagery at the beginning of the book or the beginning of a chapter? Think of which senses make the most sense and then add in details that will make word pictures for your readers.

Write an alternate beginning or an alternate ending. You might surprise yourself with what you come up with. Don’t delete anything…just add. Remember, editing comes AFTER Nano.

Did you run out of story? Maybe you started with a very severe conflict and it had nowhere to go in order to create suspense. Are there smaller problems you can work in that might lead up to the main conflict?

Can you make a conflict even worse in some way before resolving it?

Is there a subplot you can add? A love interest? A stranger appearing from the protagonist’s past? One with a secret?

If you only have half the 50 000 and you’re out of story, go back to the beginning and tell the same story from ANOTHER character’s point of view. You can decide later if there’s a way to blend the two versions, or the second version may just take off and be even more interesting…

…and by all means, let me know if any of these ideas worked for you, or if you have OTHER ideas now that might just help people in the same predicament!

The Middle of Your Novel

If you divide your novel into three parts, the beginning is roughly a quarter of your book. That should be over now, after the first week of Nano. The middle is roughly half your book, and that’s where we are now. That means that it’s time for what really drives any story…

CONFLICT!

Conflicts keep the interest of your readers and help pick up the pace. There are a few ideas to keep in mind concerning conflict:

1. Remember you have options:

PHYSICAL: anything outside the body…a blizzard or a boxing match!

EMOTIONAL: torn between two emotions concerning the same event…like feeling sad and happy the first time you leave home. Sad to be leaving behind family and friends, happy to be starting life on your own!

MENTAL: some kind of problem to solve. It’s not life-threatening and it’s probably not your main conflict. A math solution does not make for sexy reading.

PSYCHOLOGICAL: Also in the head, but this is more likely. A constant worry–something your character can’t stop worrying about. Am I going crazy? Is that person stalking me?

SPIRITUAL: Where she’s forced to go against something she believes in. For all the volunteer work she did, they surprised her with a BBQ–every kind of meat dish you’ve ever seen…and she’s vegetarian. Oh, uh, thanksssss…

BANG WORDS OUT

(instead of tiring, editing the same words over and over)

I love how straightforward this button makes the process seem. Don’t worry if you have to go back and fix a few things–that’s what editing is for…AFTER you have a completed manuscript. Let me show you…

The former me: Type a paragraph or two out. Loop back to read paragraphs that lead into the part I just wrote, and edit the heck out of it. Write a few more paragraphs…then start the next day by reading and editing everything I’d written to that point.

The new me: Bang out a first draft, even if I have to put notes in it, as I go along, about things I might change when I rewrite. This keeps the flow going forward, which I think is important. Keep the momentum so the story doesn’t sound choppy in the end.

NANOWRIMO Week #1 :

Out of the gate fast, but hold the reins!

Ok, so it’s day one of week one of Nanowrimo, National Novel Writing Month, and if you’re going to survive the onslaught, you need to be smart about it. The first part is simple, and most have no trouble with it. You want to…

GET OUT OF THE GATE FAST!

Having been through more than a few Nanos, I can tell you that, in the beginning, it’s a good idea to get a quick start and do MORE than you need to. Get a quick start! And most people are fine with this–in fact, they do TOO much the first few days, and that’s why you still need to remember to

HOLD THE REINS!

The temptation is to pump out 5000 words or so the very first day. I think that’s a mistake. The problem with doing so much so fast is that you start thinking “Hey, I’m far ahead. I can take a day off if I want to.” And once you start that habit, it’s like peanuts and potato chips–you can’t stop at one.

Instead, get a jump start, yes, but something more like 2000 words. If you divide 50 000 by 30, you get 1667 words per day that you need to do for the month of November to complete Nano. If you write 2000 per day, at the end of the first week, you’ll be more than 2000 words ahead of where you need to be. That means that in an EMERGENCY, you’ll have built up a one-day cushion. Your mind will tell you that you have a day if you need it, BUT…if you use it, it’s gone, and you’ll have to build it up again with another seven days of 2000. That’s a very different thought.

So aim for 2000 per day, and if you still have plenty of ideas remaining, that’s a good thing–no writer’s block for the next day!

Try this:

Give it a go and see how you do. I’ll be back with a Nano update for week #2–ideas that will hopefully kick in at just the WRITE time to keep you going!